The Supreme Court Just Made It Legal for Some Companies to Deny Female Employees Birth Control Coverage

Your employer can deny you access to health insurance coverage for birth control for religious reasons, the Supreme Court ruled today. Yes, that's right: In a much-anticipated 5-4 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, the court found that the religious beliefs of the employer trumped a woman's reproductive rights. Supporters of employer-paid birth control rallied in front of the Supreme Court Monday morning. As part of the ruling, the court decided that companies can hold religious beliefs in the same way an individual person can, and, moreover, business owners can opt out of the Affordable Care Act's guarantee of coverage for all FDA-approved methods of birth control if it goes against their personal beliefs. Passed into law in 2009, the ACA, better known as Obamacare, had eliminated copays for all FDA-approved birth control for women with health insurance. "The HHS contraceptive mandate substantially burdens the exercise of religion" Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. "The Government has failed to show that the contraceptive mandate is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest." The ruling will allow Hobby Lobby and another company involved in the case, Conestoga Wood Specialties, to deny female employees access to birth-control coverage

Supporters of employer-paid birth control rallied in front of the Supreme Court Monday morning.

As part of the ruling, the court decided that companies can hold religious beliefs in the same way an individual person can, and, moreover, business owners can opt out of the Affordable Care Act's guarantee of coverage for all FDA-approved methods of birth control if it goes against their personal beliefs. Passed into law in 2009, the ACA, better known as Obamacare, had eliminated copays for all FDA-approved birth control for women with health insurance.

"The HHS contraceptive mandate substantially burdens the exercise of religion" Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. "The Government has failed to show that the contraceptive mandate is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest."

The ruling will allow Hobby Lobby and another company involved in the case, Conestoga Wood Specialties, to deny female employees access to birth-control coverage under its insurance plan. (Hobby Lobby, which has some 500 stores and more than 10,000 employees, is owned by a Southern Baptist family. Conestoga Wood Specialties' owners are Pennsylvania Mennonites.) At least, that's the immediate impact. It's certainly no comfort that the ruling applies only to "closely-held companies," meaning family-owned, not publicly traded, and that there are 49 similar cases that could be affected by today's decision. According to Inc., some 90 percent of companies are closely held.

Outrage over the decision came immediately.

Minutes after the ruling, Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, denounced the court for joining "the war on women." "Extending the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of religion to corporations is appalling. (What's next—a seat in Congress?)," she said in a statement. "But history will judge the Roberts' court most harshly for so willingly doing the Catholic Bishops' dirty work for them." She added: "NOW is already mobilizing our grassroots activists across the country to ensure that this decision will not stand."

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, was also disappointed in the court's decision."It's unbelievable that in 2014, we're still fighting about whether women should have access to birth control," she said in a statement. "Some politicians want to get rid of the birth-control benefit entirely and take away coverage from millions of women. To the majority of Americans, birth control is not a controversial issue. Birth control is basic health care—and it's only a 'social issue' if you've never had to pay for it." On a press call, Richards noted that in the first year of the Affordable Care Act, women saved an estimated $483 million on birth control from the year before. While more than 30 million women will continue to get coverage, Richards rightly stated that, "This decision enshrines second-class citizenship to 52 percent of the population."

Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, had this to say on the same call: "This decision is a bitter pill for women to swallow. These and other closely held companies will now have a license to harm their female employees in the name of the company's religion.... The broad sweep that was given to this statute in favor of bosses at the price of their employees was absolutely without precedent and never before has the court suggested that this statute would have this kind of sweep and effect."

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All three of the court's female members, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor, were in the minority, voting to uphold the ACA (as was Justice Stephen Breyer.) In a stinging 35-page dissent to the majority opinion (issued by five male justices), Justice Ginsburg criticized the court's "decision of startling breadth" as one that would wreak havoc.

The majority view "demands accommodation of a for-profit corporation's religious beliefs no matter the impact that accommodation may have on third parties who do not share the corporation owners' religious faith—in these cases, thousands of women employed by Hobby Lobby and Conestoga or dependents of persons those corporations employ," Ginsburg wrote.

Ginsburg continued: "Persuaded that Congress enacted the [Religious Freedom Restoration Act] to serve a far less radical purpose, and mindful of the havoc the court's judgement can introduce, I dissent."

The ruling is narrow in that it only covers birth control. Companies that don't believe in, say, vaccinations or blood transfusions still must continue to cover these costs as they would any other medical procedure. However, future court challenges are likely.

What do you think of the Supreme Court's decision? Share in the comments below.